Treasure of Villena.Spain
it was one such farmer who first realised the stones weren’t just random. However, it is the German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt who is credited with realising what the stones were in 1994 and excavated them. Source: Smithsonian. com. A brief sidestep into the less serious side of archaeology. In 2005 a metal detectorist in East Riding (UK) found a Roman copper alloy coin die for a denarius of Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor in the
first century AD, which had been used to make counterfeit coins. Not a world treasure, but for the owner it probably was worth a small fortune. Who said archaeology isn’t fun? Source: wikipedia.
of gold found from the European Bronze Age. Almost 10 kilos in weight and made up of gold, silver, iron and amber. Some are 23.5 carat gold. That’s pretty rich stuff. It’s the most important find of prehistoric gold in the Iberian Peninsular. The iron objects are the oldest found in the Iberian Peninsular and are highly interesting in that they are from a time when iron was considered to be a precious metal, it being still the Bronze Age and all.
Treasure Villena
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We now go to Spain for some proper treasure. Tesoro de Villena (the Treasure of Villena). Probably the best hoard 42